Canada will formally protest to the United States over the case of a Canadian man deported to Syria by U.S. agents after he was accused of being connected with terrorist activity, Prime Minister Stephen Harper told President Bush on Friday. Software engineer Maher Arar was arrested in New York in September 2002 and deported to Syria, where he says he was repeatedly tortured. He was released a year later. Canadian Foreign Minister Peter MacKay was due to send a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice on Friday to protest U.S. officials' actions in the case, as recommended after a high-level inquiry, Harper said. "What I would like to see is, obviously, the United States government come clean with its version of events, to acknowledge, I would hope, the deficiencies and the inappropriate conduct that occurred in this case, particularly vis a vis interrelations with the Canadian government," he told reporters... http://abcnews.go.com

Students at Gallaudet University remained barricaded inside one of the main campus buildings Friday, protesting the school's presidential selection and what students call a pattern of prejudice at the largely deaf institution.Students said campus police on Friday morning forced their way into the Hall Memorial Building, shoving and elbowing students and pepper spraying some.The school denied use of pepper spray and said authorities needed to rush in because of a bomb threat, though there turned out to be no bomb.Ryan Commerson, a student and leader of the protests, said the campus police apparently did not know sign language and could not communicate their concerns to students as they pushed their way in....http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/10/06/college.protesters/index.html?section=cnn_us

The entire police force in the Mexican city of Tijuana is to be investigated on suspicion of being involved in drug trafficking and organised crime. In an unprecedented move, the authorities say it is the only way to clean up the force. Tijuana is on the American border and has been a major staging post for the supply of drugs to the United States. Dozens of people have been killed so far this year in violent turf wars in the city. In the words of Tijuana's mayor, Jorge Hank Rhon, everyone from the policeman on the street to the state superintendent will be the subject of this extraordinary investigation. Mr Rhon says he believes that the majority of officers in his city are, in some way, involved in illegal drug trafficking or organised crime...http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/5415018.stm

AN OUTBREAK of dengue fever has penetrated the residence of the Indian Prime Minister, infecting members of his family and putting pressure on his Government to declare an epidemic. The virus, which is carried by mosquitoes, has killed at least 38 people and infected 2,900 across the country since the end of the monsoon in August. The Government has resisted declaring an epidemic because it fears overwhelming its crowded hospitals and deterring foreign visitors at the start of the tourist high season. But the severity of the outbreak was highlighted yesterday when it was found to have penetrated the secluded Delhi residence of the Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh. ...http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,3-2391227,00.html

John Mearsheimer, the University of Chicago professor who co-authored a controversial article last winter about the power of the “The Israel Lobby,” met his critics head-on last week for a debate before a rowdy audience on the stage of New York’s historic Cooper Union. It was a vigorous exchange, replete with accusations of antisemitism, conspiracy-mongering, censorship and rank dishonesty, accompanied by cheers and catcalls from the sharply divided audience. When it was over, both sides were claiming victory. Mearsheimer’s paper, co-authored by political scientist Stephen Walt of Harvard University, portrays “The Israel Lobby” as a sprawling aggregate of organizations, private citizens and government officials that collectively holds a “stranglehold” over America’s Middle East policy. In the paper, published in March by the London Review of Books, the authors claim that “the Lobby” overrides U.S. national interest to force an unhealthy alliance with Israel that fuels ...http://www.forward.com/articles/scholars-debate-%e2%80%98israel-lobby%e2%80%99-article/

Guards at Guantanamo Bay bragged about beating detainees and described it as common practice, a Marine sergeant said in a sworn statement obtained by The Associated Press. The two-page statement was sent Wednesday to the Inspector General at the Department of Defense by a high-ranking Marine Corps defense lawyer. The lawyer sent the statement on behalf of a paralegal who said men she met on Sept. 23 at a bar on the base identified themselves to her as guards. The woman, whose name was blacked out, said she spent about an hour talking with them. No one was in uniform, she said. A 19-year-old sailor referred to only as Bo "told the other guards and me about him beating different detainees being held in the prison," the statement said. "One such story Bo told involved him taking a detainee by the head and hitting the detainee's head into the cell door. Bo said that his actions were known by others," but that he was never punished,...http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=2537232